Chapter 3: Imperial Voyager

"Welcome aboard, Skipper. You have command."

"I have command," Henry confirmed, "And you are?"

"Second Officer Charles LeBoeuf, Admiral."

"You don't sound French?"

"My paternal grandfather was French and in the Free French forces during World War Two. He married an English girl and settled in England. I'm afraid I even speak French with a very thick English accent."

A fat man in shalwar kameez, rather than uniform, escorted the two women to a well-appointed stateroom and indicated that if they wanted anything, they should ask the eunuch standing by the door.

'Eunuch?' they wondered simultaneously.

"What is this room?" asked Janice.

"This is the Admiral's stateroom," said the eunuch in a squeaky voice, "I can show you the other rooms if you wish, Highness."

As he led them through the door at the far end of the stateroom he said, "The Admiral has eight rooms. His dayroom, a study, a bedroom, four women's bedrooms and a common room for the wives and concubines."

"No bathroom?" asked Tamsin.

"Each bedroom has an attached bathroom, Highness."

Tamsin and Janice looked at each other.

"I suggest, Highness, that you wait in the common room until the Admiral decides which bedroom is assigned to whom. Are there many more concubines to come?"

"There are no concubines," Janice said firmly, "I am his wife and this is Tamsin, his daughter."

Left alone, the two women talked about the odd arrangements.

"Of course, any Moslem is allowed four wives," said Tamsin, "So they need larger accommodation."

"You have never seen your father's cabin as Second Officer on a cruise liner, have you?" replied her step-mother, "It is about eight feet by six and has a shower and loo behind a curtain. The Captain had little more. This is quite unbelievably palatial."

Meanwhile the Henry was explaining a problem he had to Head of Protocol.

"It is my daughter," he confided, "The girl and my wife do not get on well, and in the close confines of a ship, well, you understand?"

"I understand perfectly, Admiral. How might I be able to help?"

"I wondered how I might set about completing her education locally? I don't want to send her to England."

"Ah," said Kamal Qumsiyeh, completely misunderstanding the problem; for him the only education a young girl might need was in the harem arts.

"It is expected that you will provide a gift to the Emir on taking up your post. This should be done as soon as humanly possible. Entrusting him with the education of your daughter would be suitable. Is she a virgin?"

"Naturally," said Henry.

"Ideal, in that case," was the startling reply, "He is young himself, still in his twenties, and it would be an excellent life for her; as a Princess in the Golden Palace of His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah she would have the finest accommodation and so forth that a woman could possibly want."

It occurred to Henry that this might indeed prove to be the answer to the near warfare between his second wife and the daughter of his first marriage.

"A complete education?"

The Head of Protocol decide to be diplomatic at this point.

"Everything needful would be provided," he said, which misled Henry completely, "I could take her there myself this evening if you wished."

"I'll consider that," said Henry, "When do you have to leave?"

"Oh, not for some hours," said the diplomat, "I shall have lunch on shore here, or on board ship."

"Please feel free to use the wardroom," said the Admiral, conscious that Kamal Qumsiyeh's remark had been a request rather than a statement; this was his ship now.

After a quick tour of the ship, and ascertaining that there were no sailing orders for the next couple of days, Henry went to inspect his quarters and was amazed at the size of them, though naturally, he reflected, a royal yacht does not need to pack as many paying passengers in as it can, unlike the cruise liners he was used to. In fact the bed in his personal bedroom looked to be larger than the floor area of his cabin had been on his last ship.